“Bill Snyder has done the best job—hands down—of anybody in the country, from his starting date at Kansas State until today.”

Nice comments, wouldn’t you say? There can’t be many folks out there who’d disagree outright with them. Snyder may or may not be the best coach in the game, but certainly there’s no one else quite like him.

But there was a time when those compliments—coming from Brown—would’ve meant more than they do now. It was only three years ago when many would’ve counted Brown among the best program leaders in college football. He was the CEO to end all CEOs. He was a superstar, headed for a chance to win his second national championship in four years.

Now? Brown’s still paid like the best in the game—over $5.3 million a year (second only to Nick Saban) through 2020—but the man is fading faster than the late-afternoon sun.

As the Wildcats and Longhorns prepare to do battle on Saturday night in

Manhattan, Kan., with a Big 12 title and Fiesta Bowl berth at stake for the home team (presuming that Oklahoma beats TCU earlier Saturday), the view of Snyder and Brown and how they relate to each other couldn’t be starker.

One man’s in position to win some more coach of the year awards. The other’s trying to get to 22-16 overall and 12-14 in the Big 12 since Alabama DT Marcell Dareus’ hit on Colt McCoy in the opening minutes of the 2009 season finale.

Saban and the Crimson Tide have gone on to rule the world. Brown and the Longhorns have gone on to become the third-best program in their own state.

Yes, the differences between those two coaches are pretty stark, too.

Transport yourself back in time to the moments before kickoff of that 2009 title game. Would you have believed then that, three years later, the Longhorns would possibly be double-digit underdogs to Kansas State?

That’s just another indignity for Texas football, which is used to it by now.

The Longhorns are back under the boot of Oklahoma, having lost three straight to the Sooners—the past two by a combined 80 points.

Brown’s talented defense can’t—won’t—tackle, a problem that has frustrated and flummoxed the 61-year-old coach all season. (One guess: bad coaching?)

Offensively, Texas has much better talent in 2012 than it did the past two seasons, but this is still just the sixth-best offense in the Big 12. Take a guess how many offensive players from this program were selected in the previous two NFL drafts. Ready? The answer is zero.

“They’re loaded,” one coach said of another’s team this week.

It wasn’t Snyder talking about Texas, which, despite the Wildcats’ great success and the Longhorns’ struggles, still would’ve sounded right.

It was Brown talking about K-State. They’re loaded? That’s debatable.

That they’re as well-coached as any team in college football—and far better-coached than Texas—is not.

Here’s a crazy thought: How ’bout Texas wins this game?

Or maybe that’s just too crazy.

Have the performances of Brown and his program slipped so far that you can’t even hint at a Longhorns win over K-State without sounding like a loon?